As I write this the thunder is rumbling around and another
monsoon storm is threatening. We waited for the bus this morning in a short
lived downpour, so wet that the guard on the gate of the guesthouse let us
shelter in his little room! Sue, who volunteers for a month each year with
GNCEM (Good News Children’s Education Mission) came along with us as the GNCEM bus
wound its way through the busy streets stopping several times to pick up the
street children to take them to a small school for the morning. Usually there
are as many as 70 children between the ages of 3 and 13, who would otherwise be
left in their makeshift street shelters as their parents go in search of work,
with older children effectively taking charge.
Mothers also handed us their babies as young as a year, who cried for several minutes and who we would
be meeting again tomorrow when we spend time with the baby unit, but it was the
older children we went with inside the brightly decorated concrete room and
today, because of the rain, there were 22 of them. It was a joy to meet them
and spend time playing with them, doing drama (using a variety of cardboard
props we made yesterday including a scarily realistic saw!) and singing Christian
action songs (which they all knew!) and making ‘flying saucers’ then using them
for target practice. The children were so beautiful and responsive, their
attention span was amazingly long as they persevered in decorating their craft
with pens and stickers, the teacher (who is also a Pastor) taking the most care
of all over his! I felt a sudden rush of hope for India because of these
children- theirs is the future and when you look into their eyes you know that
God is already at work.
This afternoon David, Hazel and myself
wandered around a local market and I felt as though I was really falling in
love with India. We bought a coconut which a man cut open with a big machete
and Hazel drank the milk from through a
straw, some 'custard apple' fruit (which I have never tried but looks ugly from the outside!), drinks of ‘ca’-strong sweet
Indian tea- in little pottery cups and sturdy looking umbrellas. You will see
some photos taken in the market, such a colourful and relaxed place- could have
been the Hindu music being played everywhere because of the festival of Ganesh
(the one with the elephant head). The many beautiful flowers, including strings
of bright yellow and orange marigolds, are to buy and use in worship to Ganesh.
Indian people are delighted to have their photos taken (we always ask
permission) although we have not included any clear pictures of children’s
faces to protect them. We are beginning to feel strangely at home in this hot
mixture of chaos and peace where the people are so gentle and gracious.
Katherine.
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